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Hello! Any other kiwis?

A little OT .. But... I went to NZ (North Island) in March for 2 days (stopover on my way to Tonga) and I hired a car and it was SO funny to listen to the navman trying to pronounce the Maori town names. Haha.

Was a bit disappointing as they had experienced a bit of a drought so wasn't very green. It was like driving through the kinda green kinda brown Australian landscape. Not what all the scenes of NZ I had seen and expected.
 
bleachy_dude said:
A little OT .. But... I went to NZ (North Island) in March for 2 days (stopover on my way to Tonga) and I hired a car and it was SO funny to listen to the navman trying to pronounce the Maori town names. Haha.

Was a bit disappointing as they had experienced a bit of a drought so wasn't very green. It was like driving through the kinda green kinda brown Australian landscape. Not what all the scenes of NZ I had seen and expected.
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Yeah last summer was pretty rough for us overall, water shortages was a very dry hot summer.
But we are green again! So yay
 
bleachy_dude said:
A little OT .. But... I went to NZ (North Island) in March for 2 days (stopover on my way to Tonga) and I hired a car and it was SO funny to listen to the navman trying to pronounce the Maori town names. Haha.

Was a bit disappointing as they had experienced a bit of a drought so wasn't very green. It was like driving through the kinda green kinda brown Australian landscape. Not what all the scenes of NZ I had seen and expected.
Click to expand...

Honestly, if you want to see the 'typical' NZ landscape the North Island is the wrong place to be. The majority of the North is urban crap, a lot of people, cities, towns etc. South island is where all the beauty is (and this is coming from a North Islander).
 
Sheep said:
Honestly, if you want to see the 'typical' NZ landscape the North Island is the wrong place to be. The majority of the North is urban crap, a lot of people, cities, towns etc. South island is where all the beauty is (and this is coming from a North Islander).
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Yeah I presumed that was the case. It was just that I had an overnight stop at Auckland so I decided to extend it another day and drive around seeing as though I hadn't been there before. The inner nerd in my HAD to go to Hobbiton.
 
Our family holiday for next year, around October, may be New Zealand. I just need to accommodate for two toddlers too. So as much as I want to also enjoy the landscapes, I also want something for the boys- any suggestions?
 
Sheep said:
Honestly, if you want to see the 'typical' NZ landscape the North Island is the wrong place to be. The majority of the North is urban crap, a lot of people, cities, towns etc. South island is where all the beauty is (and this is coming from a North Islander).
Click to expand...

I have to agree as well.
The South Island is amazing, both summer and winter.
Snow on the mountains, lush green fields.
Plus the coast line down South is amazing,
 
probably head to Rotorua and Taupo area if you go to the North Island

hot pools, geysers, Maori culture, rainbow trout springs, walks through rainforests, farm visits ... stuff that young children like to do and still fun for you :)

you could also head to where the Hobbit was filmed - they'd probably love the hobbit houses even if they don't know what a hobbit is ...

We took our boys over when they were little .. they loved all that ... there was a luge there also which they loved ... and there's a cable car (we didn't go on that so can't say what the view was like)

There's also the glow worm caves at Waitomo - but be sure that your little ones are ok being in caves in the dark because some just don't like it at all

Queenstown is beautiful and there is plenty to do there - but some of the adventure type activities (jet boats, bungey jumping etc ) they are too little for ... September/early October you might be lucky to still have snow up on the mountains in the South Island. In Queenstown you can go for a day tour on a paddle steamer over to a large sheep property - have lunch, do farm stuff which the littlies just love ... and there's a cable car with spectacular views over Lake Wanaka and the Remarkable Ranges ... you can go panning for gold ... touristy stuff but the boys just loved it all

Don't try to fit in both islands in 2 weeks because although NZ is small in comparison to Australia it packs in a lot in a short distance ... and you don't hit a straight flat road for 200km like you often do here :) Plus with littlies they're just not going to love being in the car all the time anyway
 
crimmy said:
probably head to Rotorua and Taupo area if you go to the North Island

hot pools, geysers, Maori culture, rainbow trout springs, walks through rainforests, farm visits ... stuff that young children like to do and still fun for you :)

you could also head to where the Hobbit was filmed - they'd probably love the hobbit houses even if they don't know what a hobbit is ...

We took our boys over when they were little .. they loved all that ... there was a luge there also which they loved ... and there's a cable car (we didn't go on that so can't say what the view was like)

There's also the glow worm caves at Waitomo - but be sure that your little ones are ok being in caves in the dark because some just don't like it at all

Queenstown is beautiful and there is plenty to do there - but some of the adventure type activities (jet boats, bungey jumping etc ) they are too little for ... September/early October you might be lucky to still have snow up on the mountains in the South Island. In Queenstown you can go for a day tour on a paddle steamer over to a large sheep property - have lunch, do farm stuff which the littlies just love ... and there's a cable car with spectacular views over Lake Wanaka and the Remarkable Ranges ... you can go panning for gold ... touristy stuff but the boys just loved it all

Don't try to fit in both islands in 2 weeks because although NZ is small in comparison to Australia it packs in a lot in a short distance ... and you don't hit a straight flat road for 200km like you often do here :) Plus with littlies they're just not going to love being in the car all the time anyway
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I just saw this, thankyou for all the suggestions crimmy. I like the idea of taking them to where the hobbit was filmed. Queens town sounds amazing! Maybe not be ideal for the kiddies, may need to wait until they are a little older.

North island is where I'm going to aim for. Thanks again
 
We named our rescue dog Kiwi... because she looks like a kiwi fruit. :)Kiwi1-7-13#2.jpg
And her original name was 'Casing the joint' so we needed a new positive name.
 
Sheep said:
Honestly, if you want to see the 'typical' NZ landscape the North Island is the wrong place to be. The majority of the North is urban crap, a lot of people, cities, towns etc. South island is where all the beauty is (and this is coming from a North Islander).
Click to expand...

I've never been to the North Island but yeah I love the South Island. I have always regretted never heading down to Dunedin and Invercargill whenever I go back but that's the problem with having family there you kind of get trapped in your old city. When my kids are a bit older I am heading back down and I am doing the south of the South Island.

I always tell Aussies who have never been if they do go to stay away from the cities and just head out to country side and mountains.
 
Allgood said:
I always tell Aussies who have never been if they do go to stay away from the cities and just head out to country side and mountains.
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That is good advice!

SO many more NZers on this board than I thought. Sweet! And here I was thinking I was somehow special. Last time that silly thought crosses my mind.
 
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